The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1887-04-29
The Egis & Intelligencer
Tel Air, Md, April 20, 1873.
hartford COUNTY's REyOLUTIoN
AIRY RECORD,
Mostly from Original Documents.
BY GEO. w. ARCHER.

Tie next document will be better understood
BY aid of the following information: The old or
proprietary Assembly, in its session from Nov
81 TO Dec 80, lI3, which was It's last session hut
one-pdssed an act establishing Hartford county.
Among its provisions was one, that 10000 lbs of
tIbacco, Of the value OF El,259 current money, be
public buildings-one-halt to be collected In lTI6,
an the remainder In the following year. And
now Hartford had previously contributed TO the
erection of the public building in Baltimore
,unty, levy Of 10000 lbs OF the same staple
equivalent to 1850 currency-was ordered 10 be
made in the latter county In the same manner
as aforesaid, and for the same purpose. The
from March ed. IVA, to April 18th (the very last
session OF the provincial or proprietary Assem-
by, suspended until the end Of the next session
the power of the commissioners who had been
appointed under the act 10 erect tho necessary
buildings; but the suspension did not interfere
with the collection of the imposed tax, which
still went on. The revolution occurclng, how
ever, the next session-that of the first State
Assembiy-dd not take place until Feb. l17I-
when the act suspendng the power Of the COM
missioncrs was continued until the endof the next
session and so on, at the various sessions until
jan, liz, when the suspending act again expired
Jan'y I'D aud not being renewed, the commits
sloners were free to proceed under the orig inal
act.
The paper referred to embraces series of res
olutions passed by the provincial convention
most prob bly, at its first session in the autumn
of l77i. 1t is evident, from its abrupt commence
ment, as well as from its want of date, that the
first portion of ii is missing. IL is as follows:
'ResOiUed, That the sum of money collected, or
to be collected, in Baltimore county for the build
ing court house and prison, &c, in Hartford
county, ought TO be paid into the hands of the
commissioners OF Hartford county aforesaid, and
be by them put out on interest for the use of
same county, until the dispute in the same coun-
ty relative to the place where said prison and
court house, &c, shall be erected and built, be
hereafter terminated by the legislative authori-
~ for the time being.
"ReSOired, That the residue of the sum of money
directed by act of Assembly to be assessed and
levied on the inhabitants Of Hartford county for
the building the court house. prison, &c. shall be.
pursuant to said act assessed and levied by the
Justices of said county on the inhabitants there
OF; but IL trade and commerce shall not be re-
stored SO as to enable the people of said county
to discharge said tax, that the legislative body
for the time being, will suspend the payment of
the same, or otherwise as to them shall seem ex-
pedent. Whether this was done or NOT, does
not appear from these papersl.
THAT the money already collected. or here
after to be collected for the same shall be paid
into the hands of the commissioners of Hartford
county aforesaid, and be by them put out at In
terest for use OF said county, until the dispute
thereiA relative to the place where said court
house and prison shall be erected, be hereafter
terminated by the legislative authority for the
time being Extracts from the minutes.
G. DUvALL, Clk."
The attempt to remove the county seat from
Hartford Town produced soon afterwards, at a
very critical period of the war, such degree of
discord among the people of the county, that the
Committee of Observation instructed the county
delegates in the Convention to see to 1t without
delay that measures were adopted by that body
TO put an end to the agitation. In 1857, four
years after the close of the war; this fierce con-
test again ragged, and was decided. under an act
OF Assembly, by the popu ar vote of the county,
in favor of Bel Air. She had once already lin
l7SD carried the day before the people as their
choice for county-seat-there being on that Oc-
cason three other contestants. Hartford Town
the de Jdcto county-seat, being one. The latter,
however, did not enter upon the contest of l1S7-
probably making virtue of necessity, besides
consolinR herself with the idea that 1t was glory
enough to have been the c0untys capital during
nearly the whole eventtul period that tried mems
souls. In fact, none of Bel Airs old competitors
Uhe other two being Otter Point Y Roads called
also Gravelly Hill, and Lower Roads, or
Churchville,l contested the honor with her this
later occasion. 1t was left to Havre de Grace
alone In her uns1phistlcated infancy (she was
only two years old, to aspire to that distinction
a special act OF Assembly having accorded her
the privilege of entering upon the hopeless con-
test.